Feeder — C-channels

C-channels

Four drive stages on one common core, each finished differently for the job it does.

Contributors barthel, BrickCycleAlice, Christoph and Danny

A C-channel is one drive unit: a rotor turning inside a stator, driven by a NEMA 17 stepper through a gear train. A machine has four, and all four are built on the same core. What differs is the rotor that drops in and what hangs off it.

Build the core four times, then finish each one on its own page.

Channel core. Stator, NEMA bracket, gear train, stepper. Build four.
Bulk channel (C1). The faceted rotor and the Bulk cap. No lamp, no output guide.
Feeder channels (C2 and C3). The faceted rotor and an output guide. Build two.
Classification channel (C4). The finned rotor and its cap.

Each page finishes its channel on the bench, rotor in. Once all four are built, arranging C-channels sets their heights and hangs the camera lamps.

The finished result

Each page ends in one of these.

A finished channel core from directly above: the stator ring open at one side, the three-armed NEMA bracket fastened across it with the raised hub at its centre, the gear train at the ring's edge and the stepper motor standing outside the wall with its lead, and no rotor in the hub — Channel core, no rotor in it yet. Photo: BrickCycleAlice.

A finished C1 on the bench: the tall cylindrical bulk cap seated on the channel below it, its outlet opening at the front right, the stepper motor at the front with its lead coiled — Bulk channel, the cap on. Photo: BrickCycleAlice.

A C-channel from above on a plain surface: the faceted rotor sitting down in the stator ring, with the stepper motor and its lead standing off one side — Feeder channel, rotor in. The output guide is not in this shot. Photo: BrickCycleAlice.

A finished classification channel on a wooden bench: the white finned rotor sitting down in the black stator ring with a small grey cap at its centre, the stepper motor at the left and the orange output gear showing at the gap in the ring — Classification channel, the capped rotor in. Photo: ReveryX.